Kanye West 'Connects' With George Bush After Taylor Swift Outburst

Kanye West has said he now sympathises with George Bush after the former US president said he felt like the rapper had branded him a racist in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

West criticised Bush's slow response to the crisis during a live telethon, and claimed it was because he “doesn't like black people”.

Earlier this week, Bush said the rapper's reaction was the “most disgusting moment” of his presidency.

Responding to Bush's comment, West has said he felt like he now connected with the former president because he was branded a racist after his outburst involving Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

“I got accused of being a racist,” West told Houston radio station 97.9 The Box. “With both situations, it was basically a lack of compassion that America saw.

"With him, it was a lack of compassion with him not rushing, him not taking the time to rush down to New Orleans.”

“With me, it was a lack of compassion of cutting someone off in their moment. But nonetheless, I think we're all quick to pull a race card in America, and now I'm more open, [due to] the poetic justice that I feel to have went through the same thing that he went.

“And I really more connect with him just on a humanitarian level because that next morning, the next morning when he felt that, I felt that same thing too [with the Taylor Swift incident]."

Kanye West's comment is included in Gigwise's round-up of some of the rapper's most famous quotes.